Detention

Sirius POV

Sirius watched as Regulus, accompanied by his two Slytherin friends, left the Great Hall. The Gryffindor felt dirty, while some of the students were still amused by his joke. Why he felt that way, he didn't know. Regulus should know better than to make eye contact with him. The younger boy had chosen his side and Sirius had had enough of going along with his advances. He thought they were done with it.

After severing any ties with his nuclear family last year, he had tried to think about Regulus as little as possible. James had been there for him and he had helped Sirius as much as he could. To a certain extent, Regulus seemed to have disappeared from Sirius' mind.

When school started again after the winter holidays, Regulus had looked him up on the train....

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"Sirius, if you come home now, mum and dad will forgive you! They'll grieve as if you had died." Regulus explained desperately. He had asked Sirius to talk to him in private, and although Sirius had known from the start that this was a stupid idea, he had agreed. Now they were standing in an empty compartment. Sirius had to suppress a contemptuous laugh. "They're mourning? And why do you think I care about that? Face it Reg! They're manipulating you! You're trying to persuade me to go back to that madhouse?! Well, I'm not going back!" the older man growled, rolling his eyes as Regulus took a step back. "Those aren't your words. The Potters talked you into it!" he whispered fearfully, his brown eyes looking at him pleadingly. Something about those eyes made the Gryffindor terribly angry. He laughed barkingly, but there was no joy in this outburst. "Oh no, brother! Our dear parents have talked you into a lot of things! And I'm through with it! Keep kissing our demonic mother's shoes!" he hissed angrily and left the compartment angrily before slamming the sliding door behind him so hard that he heard the glass break behind him.

———————

Since then, Regulus had given up contacting him. As much as Sirius wanted to be happy about it, his heart clenched every time he ran into him in the corridor or saw him at the Slytherin table. The other Marauders were smarter than to bring up the subject or even acknowledge it.

So the months passed and during the summer holidays there were actually whole days when Sirius didn't even have to think about Regulus. He really had better things to do in his last summer holidays and he spent hours practising Quidditch with James in the Potters' large garden.

As soon as the first week of his final year had passed, his brother's name (only through blood) was carried to his ears. He overheard two second years talking about it one morning at breakfast.

"....no really! Black from Slytherin really can defeat a Boggart!" declared the first student excitedly.

"Without a wand? I doubt it." said the other and shook his head.

Sirius frowned. What kind of rubbish was that? Where did such a stupid rumour come from? Shaking his head, he turned to Moony, who was trying to explain the next prank to him.

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But it didn't stop at this one overheard conversation. Sirius kept hearing the rumour going around among students and when even Peter told James about it, he had had enough. Angrily, he got up from his chair in the Gryffindor common room and looked angrily at Peter, who was sitting next to James on the sofa.

"That's rubbish Wormtail! No way can that pureblood fanatic do that!" he growled annoyed and felt a little bad when Peter ducked his head uncertainly. James looked at his best friend, frowning, and Remus, who had been sitting on the windowsill, engrossed in reading, lowered his book to look at Sirius with a raised eyebrow.

"It's just a rumour Pads." James explained reassuringly and Sirius felt himself getting even more annoyed. "Exactly! And it would be really nice if you could stop talking about that mummy's boy!"

The eldest of the group had to control himself not to stamp his foot. And it only got worse when he noticed the pitying looks from his friends. He felt the urge to make those expressions disappear.

"He can't do it. But I can!" the Doganimagus announced with his arms crossed. The mood of the other three immediately changed. Peter's eyes widened in awe, Remus closed his eyes in annoyance and despair and James stood up and looked pleadingly at Sirius. "Sirius, please be reasonable." he pleaded to his friend, but there was no stopping him.

"Come with me! I'll prove it!"

———————

Eventually he managed to persuade his friends to follow him. Peter looked nervous and plucked at his sleeves. "We're going to be late for dinner." he raised his voice shyly and hesitantly. Sirius snorted. "There are more important things, Pete. You're getting something much better than food. A great show." He grinned and Remus snorted. "Yeah, a suicide's." the werewolf grumbled as he continued to look at his book he was reading to study for N.E.W.T.'s. James gently pulled him aside by the sleeve as he walked so he wouldn't run into one of the walls. "You don't have to prove anything to us, mate." the Head Boy insisted sternly for the fifth time, but the Black ignored the objections and opened the door of an old classroom with a wave of his wand. He bowed with a grin and gestured for his friends to enter.

———————

He had been right. There really was a Boggart living in the old classroom desk. Despite his queasy feeling, he handed his own wand dramatically to James and winked at Remus (who looked at him dryly without making a face and closed his book in annoyance) before turning to the shaking desk. He knew his Boggart. One of the advantages of growing up in the Blackish household. He grinned, trying to quell the fear in his stomach as James opened the door of the lectern with a hesitation, with a wave of his wand.

His heart seemed to stop. He had been expecting the figure of his mother....of Walpurga. It had always been Walpurga. She was his nightmare. The only one who could venomously convince him that he was a disappointment and worthless. And if not her, he would have expected to meet the cold gaze of his....of Orion.

Instead, it was Regulus' figure that faced him. But.....he seemed grotesquely distorted. He was wearing the fine black and green suit that Sirius had always had to wear when his parents wanted to present him to societies as heir. His face looked scrawnier and more expressionless than ever. Behind Sirius, James was talking quietly. He tried to remind him that this was only a Boggart, but Sirius continued to stare at the image of his brother in bewilderment. With an effort, he raised his trembling hand. He whispered the beginning of the ritual his father had taught him and Regulus. Not that Sirius had ever mastered this.

Slowly, Regulus contorted his face into a sad smile. "You left me behind, Sirius. I had no choice." He whispered softly and pulled up his left sleeve. Sirius stumbled back and shook his head. "No....No..." The spell broke and he heard his friends calling up shield spells as the magic spun out of his control and flailed about. Sirius barely noticed. Regulus was still smiling sadly at him. Regulus....who bore the dark mark on his left forearm like a wound. All this......only because of him, because of Sirius Orion Black.

"LEVARE!" someone shouted behind him and his wild magic suddenly calmed with an involuntary compulsion that hurt Sirius to the core. Groaning, he sank to his knees. "Riddikulus!" another shout followed. Regulus vanished all at once, leaving Sirius shattered on the dirty floor of the classroom. Hot tears ran down his cheeks and he heard muffled voices around him.

Someone knelt in front of him and after a few moments, Sirius realised that this someone was Professor Rider. The teacher for DADA. She spoke to him sternly. "Mr Black. Can you hear me?" she asked sternly and clearly. The Gryffindor nodded with effort and tried to control his breathing and voice. "Y-yes. Yes. Professor," he whispered quietly. The blonde-haired woman nodded and scrutinised him seriously. "What were you thinking?" she demanded to know and Sirius had to take several breaths to get the sentence out. "I...I wanted to do the Boggart without....without a wand..." he whispered croakily, feeling terribly stupid.

The professor looked at him for a moment, stunned, before shaking her head and looking at him angrily. "And how, in Merlin's and Morgana's name, did you come up with this idea!"

Sirius raised his eyes a little more and now took his eyes off his three friends, who were all looking at him worriedly. Peter smiled at him with an endeavouring affirmation. The black-haired man swallowed and looked at the professor again. "Regulus Black.... supposedly can." he muttered barely audibly and Rider raised a brow. "Is that so? What makes you think that?" she asked seriously and if he had looked more closely, he would have seen the excited desire in her blue eyes.

Instead, he scrutinised the dirty floor and swallowed. "Everyone's talking about it...it's just stupid rumours....but he's always been good at wandless magic." he muttered quietly to himself. He could feel himself feeling more like himself already and the horror gave way to a wave of shame. His friends and Professor Rider had seen his Boggart. They had seen Regulus. Sirius felt wretched.

"Mr Black. You have put yourself and your friends in mortal danger. You should never try to equate your achievements with others. Especially not if you've only heard rumours." she lectured him sternly. She stood up and looked at the other Marauders. "And you have made yourself complicit. You will escort Mr Black to the hospital wing and then come to my classroom for detention. 10 points deducted for each of you," she explained sternly.

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In the hospital wing, Sirius had been given a strengthening potion. He felt much better when they turned up for detention in Rider's classroom, but his stomach dropped when he saw none other than Regulus sitting in the classroom. Of course, he tried not to let on and listened to Rider's stories while Regulus' presence stung him like an infected wound.

When the DADA teacher turned her attention to the youngest in the group, Sirius frowned and looked over at Regulus for the first time. The latter had turned white as a sheet at Rider's words. When Rider moved away from Regulus and he noticed James' questioning and worried look on his face, Sirius hurriedly looked ahead again.

Even when they left detention, he forced himself not to turn round once. So Regulus was his greatest fear? All the more reason to avoid him.

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